For the last 32 years, Central New York Rod & Gun Club members have
shot more than 300,000 rounds of lead ammunition into wetlands.

By spring, members will be firing on a new shooting range, away from
Peter Scott Swamp in Pennellville.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month signed a draft
consent order to stop the members from firing lead shot into the
nearby wetlands and water. EPA Regional Administrator Alan Steinberg
said it was part of a larger effort to educate owners and operators
of outdoor shooting ranges on how to safely manage lead shot and bullets.

"The reason we're here is because we're trapshooters and we shoot
lead that cannot be managed in the wetlands," said Tom Schneider, of
Cicero, president of the Central New York Rod & Gun Club.

"We are here to help, not shut you down," said Edward Guster III,
environmental scientist for the EPA in New York. "We're doing this
because the future of the sport depends on this."

Guster met with club members Wednesday night in Oswego County.

"This is not a gun issue. It's an environmental issue," he said.
"Lead is a toxin. To remove the lead would mean to destroy the
wetlands and that's not what we're trying to do."

Instead, the EPA says, it's best if the lead breaks down naturally or
remains in the wetlands. It also wants the gun club to create a plan
documenting such things as the weather and the amount of lead fired
at a new shooting range.

"What's happening is that neighbors or developers are coming after
shooting clubs because there's too much noise. They can't do anything
about the noise so they go after them because they're shooting lead
into the environment," Guster said. "But if you're working with the
EPA to come up with a plan to manage your lead, judges may look at
that more favorably."

The gun club has agreed to move its trap fields across Mud Creek to a
new location about 150 yards away so it can manage the lead that's
fired, Schneider said. In 1991, the club purchased about 20 acres on
Kline Road, where the new shooting range will be, he said. That's
connected to the club's original 60 acres on Peter Scott Road.

"We're going to do what's right," Schneider said.

Within the next 45 days, the club plans to move two of its three trap
houses to the new field. Club members also plan to build a third trap
house early next year.

Club treasurer Suzanne Warner, of North Syracuse, said she expects
the move to cost about $10,000. That includes building a new trap
house, putting electricity in the trap house and other moving costs, she said.

"To get a plan (to manage the lead), we have to move our traps, which
we have no money to do," she said.

The group hopes to raise the money through raffle ticket sales.

The winter trap league will go on as planned at the original site.
Members and others also will be able to shoot lead ammunition at the
existing trap field through the end of April, Schneider said. After
that, all shooting will move to the new fields.

The lead shot onto the new fields will be collected and recycled.

"We'd go out of business if we couldn't continue to shoot trap there.
We don't have money to buy more property to open up a new facility,"
Schneider said. "Now we can continue our club as it's always been."